Sarangkot

We were up bright and early this morning in plenty of time for yoga. On arrival, the teacher took us into the studio and proceeded to tell us he was unwell and wouldn't be teaching that morning. He said we were welcome to use the studio for free for some self practice though so we did this and had a good hour's yoga/stretching which was nice. We're not having much luck with these yoga teachers in Pokhara. He did sound full of cold but, after the session, Freddie was chatting to him and he revealed he had a full day tomorrow at a five star resort ... bet he won't be missing that one!

At about 1130 we begin the walk up to Sarangkot. Its really warm again today and as we start to climb it gets really hot so we take regular rests. Its a longer and harder walk than we had thought. Imagine climbing up uneven stone steps in the midday sun for about two and a half hours continuously and you might get some idea. Our hamstrings have only just stopped aching from the yoga session on Monday so lets hope we're ok tomorrow for the downhill which is always harder in the legs. As you climb you get closer and closer to the hundreds of paragliders that take off just below the village. Its quite odd with large shadows occasionally crossing our paths and we liken them to the winged Nazgul in The Lord of the Rings.

Sarangkot village is very pretty and Andy is stopped and asked to play violin for a family - the man of the house wants to sing so Andy obliges. This photo is of their cheeky youngest son. They also offer to sell us homegrown weed which happens a few times more as we wander further up into the village. It seems they all grow it up here.

We continue to the top and unfortunately its clouded over so there isn't much of a view and there won't be a sunset over the mountains tonight. Oh well. We find a place to stay for the night and we're the only guests although a few others come to the guest house for dinner as they do wood fired pizzas. We join a couple of French girls and drink more beer and rum that we had planned.

And an early start for sunrise in the morning ... oops!

Haiku
Thousand steps of hot ascent
Silent shadow breath
Cast by human bird